Nahta Bandhu Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Dashrath Sharma
Publisher: Agarchand Nahta Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 566

Coins of The Malavas of Rajasthan Kalyan Kumar Dasgupta, M.A., D. Phil. Department of Ancient Indian History
and Culture, University of Calcutta Identical with the Malloi of the Classical accounts, the Mälavas of indigenous tradition were one of the celebrated tribes of ancient India remembered in history for their stubborn resistance to Alexander the Great in the fourth century B. C. Though their opposition to the Macedonian hero failed, they elicited admiration of foreign observers for their excellent fighting qualities.1 During this period they were living in the Central Punjab, between the Chenab and the Ravi and the memory of their association with the State lingers in the name Malwa denoting the region comprised of the districts of Ferozepur and Ludhiana, the old States of Patiala, Jind, Nabha and Malerkotla, The memory of the early Punjab association is further preserved in the name of the dialect Malawai used in the region extending from Ferozepur to Bhatinda.? The tribe, however, subsequently migrated to Rajasthan most probably owing to the pressure of Greek invasions under Demetrius, Apollodotus and Menander.3 Hencerth Rajasthan became their field of activity and the Malavagana-vishaya, an expression used in a third century record seems to have been made up of a considerable portion of southeastern Rajasthan comprising parts of the old States of Udaipur, Jaipur, and Tonk and the district of Ajmer. Still later they occupied the north-west part of Central India, the region which came to be known by the nams Malava after them. In the early mediaeval period Malwa roughly denoted the region between the Gangetic Valley & and the Vindhyan mountain on the one hand and Bundelkhand and the Aravalli range on the other.5
Credit goes to the Mālavas for having issued extensive coinage. And indeed, they were one of the few tribal peoples of ancient India to have issued coins. So far more than 6000 coins issued by them have been recovered, all from
1. See R. C. Majumdar (edited), Classical Accounts of India, pp. 66, 68,
138, 199 etc. 2. George Abraham Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India. IX, 1, p. 709. 3. K. K. Dasgupta, The Malavas, pp. 4-5, 23. 4. Ibid, p. 5. 5. Ibid., p. 6.
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